NVIDIA selects Magma's Talus platform

BANGALORE, INDIA: Magma Design Automation Inc. announced that NVIDIA Corp. standardized on Magma’s Talus IC implementation software for design of 45-nanometer (nm) integrated circuits.

NVIDIA selected Talus because it offers advanced capabilities for addressing 45-nm design challenges, supporting leading edge 45-nm routing rule and extraction, low-power design and large, high-utilization macro-rich designs. By leveraging Talus’ advanced, integrated capabilities such as a congestion-aware automated macro placer, rapid timing and DRC closure, and sign-off-correlated post-layout optimization, NVIDIA can achieve better time to market and higher productivity.

Talus: Platform for 45nm design

Magma’s Talus IC implementation software provides advanced capabilities for 45-nm design within an integrated and highly automated RTL-to-GDSII flow. The front-end product allows logic designers to synthesize, visualize, evaluate and improve RTL code quality, design constraints, testability requirements and floorplan.

Talus also integrates fast, full-featured, high-capacity predictable synthesis capabilities, full and incremental static timing analysis and power analysis. Magma’s physical design solution includes optimization, place and route, useful skew clock generation, floorplanning and power planning, RC extraction and a single, built-in incremental timing analyzer.

Based on Magma's unified data model, this platform accurately predicts final timing prior to detailed placement, eliminates timing closure iterations and enables rapid design closure while taking into account 45-nm effects such as on-chip variation (OCV). Magma supports leading foundries’ 45-nm routing rules and parasitic technology files.

The Magma platform also includes advanced power optimization and management capabilities, and implements multiple power-saving design strategies to achieve maximum power reduction. The Magma system integrates low-power analysis and optimization engines throughout the entire RTL-to-GDSII flow.

The system supports advanced techniques such as native multi-Vt, automated multi-voltage designs, adaptive voltage scaling using concurrent multicorner optimization and multi-Vdd, and physical implementation that meets leading foundries’ 45-nm dynamic and leakage power requirements.